Happy Halloween !

nataliedee.com

I'm off to Kuala Lumpur tonight with some friends and will be there until Sunday morning. Just a short and quick weekend adventure with the girls. :) I'm really looking forward to all the amazing Malay, Chinese and Indian food waiting for us! I've been to KL once before, but it was for work and I didn't have much time do anything else. But I do remember loving every non-fastfood meal I had there.

I promise to be back with stories and photos and I dare promise to post about it immediately. Seriously. Hopefully this will kick-start my posting into gear! :) I know it will!

I hope you all have a fun and freaky Halloween weekend! :) To those of you hitting the road, have fun but be safe!

My word cloud

Create your own word cloud here! :)

A super special delivery

When my sweet friend D offered to send me a sample basket of her organic produce, I expected, well , just a small sampling. Instead, I woke up to the super generous and colorful bounty you see in the photo above (there's a lot more in the basket you don't see: more potatoes, onions, kalamansi , another head of broccoli, another head of cauliflower, a zucchini and more tomatoes)! Don't they look gorgeous? It made me wish instantly that I didn't have to leave for work that day. I wanted to stay home and admire my lovely present and make delicious things with them. In an ideal world, that's how that special day would have played out, with the time to blog about each and every one of the dishes.

But in reality, I barely had time to arrange the veggies and shoot this photo before I grabbed some breakfast and dressed for work. Since that day though, we've enjoyed the freshness and all-natural goodness of these vegetables in simple dishes such as tortang talong, spanish omelettes, cauliflower au gratin, eggplant parmesan, steamed broccoli in oyster sauce, and tortilla de patata. The super crisp lettuce & juicy tomatoes I take with me to work for a nice lunch salad along with various other toppings, and all the carrots have already gone into the juicer with either oranges, grapefruit, celery and/or cucumber, melon, mango etc. (boy, do I love my fresh juice!!) :)

I'm really enjoying this stash! So much so that I've asked D to put me in her 'system', with an every-other-week order. I'm really loving how accessible all these locally-grown organic fruits (she'll be adding mangoes, papaya and bananas to the next batch:) ) and veggies are becoming, giving busy people like myself the opportunity to support local farmers.

I've also placed an order with another local organic farmer to try, the same one Joey ordered from and who was introduced to us by our dear friend, Katrina. (Thanks, Kat!:)) He delivered his produce this morning, looking just like Joey's in her photo, along with a dozen organic eggs, 2 papayas and one mabolo fruit. :) I can't wait to try everything!

Thank you, dear sweet D, for such a lovely and healthy present! :)

Boom-de-ah-da!

This has to be the best commercial ever made. I love it! And I love sharing the stuff I love, so here it is for those of you who haven't seen it yet. :)




Our world really is just awesome! :)

I love my Mother Earth *updated!*

Canvas Mother Earth Bags

Hello? Anybody out there? I hope you all haven't given up on me and left me alone. :( I'm a scaredy-cat. Sigh, but I don't blame you. I broke my promise, about being back to blogging, and about blogging on the road and I'm sorry. But I tried! Turns out, blogging on the road, is kinda like, well, doing a commentary on bungee jumping while you're airborne. Have you tried doing that? Neither have I but I bet it's difficult!

Anyway, instead of giving you a list of reasons why I've been gone so long, since I bet you can guess half of them, I'll show you one of the things that's been occupying my mind a lot and some of my time. In behalf of my amazing partners (Joey, Angela & K), I am thrilled and proud to introduce to you the Mother Earth Bags!

Mother Earth Bags made using recycled flour sacks

We've all heard the warnings, most of us have watched Al Gore's eye-opening presentation, so the last thing I'm going to do is preach to you. I have long wanted to do my share to help heal this beautiful planet we live in, for our sake and for those of our children and grandchildren to come. So while I'm making changes in baby steps towards that goal, I wanted to help others do the same. Hence the idea of offering very affordable and fun reusable shopping bags as an alternative to plastic ones.

The bags are expertly made by the hard-working women of The Livelihood Shoppe, a livelihood center that has been employing the underpriveleged women of Taguig for the past 21 years. So by purchasing and using these bags, you are not only being kind to our Mother Earth, you are also providing these women with jobs. Now how great is that?! :)

At the website, you can view the bags in slightly larger images, and find all other information such as product descriptions, pricing and details on how to order (unfortunately these are only available in Metro Manila at the moment until we figure out shipping arrangements to other places). Also on the site are some links and videos which I've included in case you like to know more about the gravity and magnitude of the dangers plastic imposes on our environment and eco-system.

Update!! : I'm both ecstatic and proud to announce that as of today, Oct. 15, Mother Earth Bags are now available at the EchoStore. I was a big fan of this store since it's inception, and to be part of it is simply thrilling! :) This is a one-stop shop for other Filipino-made, organic, environment-friendly, all-natural products made by indigenous communities and marginalized groups. It is the brainchild of Jeannie Javelosa, Chit Juan & Reena Francisco and was conceptualized to promote a sustainable lifestlyle while sustaining marginalized communities, showcasing Filipino excellence and giving small businesses like ours a place to market our products.

EchoStore shares shop space with Kape Isla and is located at the ground level of Serendra, facing Market! Market! with tel. no. at 901-3485.

http://mamaearth.multiply.com/

Love our Mother Earth, we only have one.